OPEC refuses to step up oil supply hikes and risks bare-knuckle fight with the White House
What happens in the coming weeks will have major implications for the global economy
OPEC and its allies will stick to their slow pace of oil-production increases, disregarding U.S. President Joe Biden’s demand to go faster.
After a brief meeting on Thursday, the group approved a 400,000 barrel-a-day production hike for December, a delegate said. That’s a pace that major consumers say is too slow to sustain the post-COVID economic recovery, with the U.S. asking for as much as double that amount.
The cartel could now face a bare-knuckle fight with the White House, amid growing speculation that the U.S. could tap emergency crude stockpiles in an effort to drive down prices.
What happens in the coming weeks will have major implications for a global economy that has been battered by high energy prices, and for the domestic political agenda of a U.S. president whose popularity is sinking as inflation rises. The showdown also puts further strain on America’s increasingly fragile relationship with its strongest Middle Eastern ally — Saudi Arabia.
